The Journey of Darren and Riku
by PDC
Summary: Riku's back, everybody, and he's ready for action... only this time, he'll be accompanied by someone other than Sora. A boy named Darren has decided to tag along. Together, they must unravel the ancient mysteries surrounding Kingdom Hearts and save their
1. Default Chapter

The Journey of Darren and Riku  
  
ONE  
RIKU'S FALL  
  
The blackness of the End of the World grew dark with the Heartless. Sora stood outside the gate to Kingdom Hearts, watching as his best friend, Riku, as he stood on the other side, an expression of solemn grief on his face. Riku turned his face to Kairi, and sighed to Sora.  
"Take care of her for me," Riku whispered, his voice barely audible over the roaring of Ansem's exploding remains. Sora felt hot tears in his eyes, but he couldn't cry, not now, he had to show Riku he wasn't afraid...  
But in truth, he was afraid, more afraid than ever at what he was about to do. The worlds were coming back together, and he would never see Riku again... Kairi would be his only friend now...  
Sora felt his own Heart fade toward the Darkness, but he held onto it with all his might. The power within his Heart couldn't go away to the Heartless. He couldn't let it. Sora turned the Keyblade toward the door, began to seal it shut. Riku's face, sad and yet happy at the same time, made Sora want to cry again.  
Kairi stood at the edge of the world behind him, and as the door was closing, she felt a tear at her Heart as Riku was encased behind the door. As Kairi wept in despair, a flash of white light erupted beneath her, enveloping her, and she saw the white, sandy shores of the Destiny Islands. Her home. The End of the World was fading fast now. Her world was being restored. Sora turned around, and grabbed her hand, and she got it and held it tight.  
"Kairi!" he yelled to her, breathless, "Always remember what we said to each other! What you said to me! I'm always with you too! And, I promise I'll come back for you!"  
She cried, and yelled, "I know you will!"  
Her fingers, so weak after Sora's fight with Ansem, could not hold on long. Sora, barely tangible now, slipped from her grasp, and the last she saw of Sora was his ghostly figure being sucked through the closing gate of Kingdom Hearts.  
  
Riku's eyes fluttered open. What he saw was incredible. He was lying, it seemed, on the edge of a vast cliff. The End of the World was gone. Was this... was this Kingdom Hearts?  
No, thought Riku quickly, standing up and looking around. Everything Ansem and Maleficent had told him about this place did not seem to be in accordance with what he was seeing. Kingdom Hearts was not a world. It was merely the Heart of all the worlds, a sort of crossroad. Kingdom Hearts could not possibly be a world. It was inconceivable.  
But then, Maleficent and Ansem had both turned out to be evil, consumed by the Heartless. They had betrayed him, and opened the Final Door. They had pitted him in a desperate struggle between his friends, and just when he had tried to make up for his mistakes, his friends had been taken from him too.  
This in mind, Riku did not think he could accept anything Maleficent or Ansem had told him. They were indubitably lies.  
Riku kept his mind open, moving back away from the cliff.  
Conscious that he was now in a totally different world altogether, Riku took in his surroundings.  
The sky reminded him of the sunsets on Destiny Islands, with both his friends, Kairi and Sora. The clouds were drenched in a rich, cleansing red; the sun, off away in the west, was a huge fireball, showering him with light. It illuminated the cliffs with a surreal glow. Riku crossed to the edge.  
The distance from here to the bottom of the cliffs seemed immeasurable. It was immense, and the blackness stretched forever down into its depths.  
Off across the cliffs, a vast plain with mountains as its huge skyline lay plastered to the horizon.  
Turning around, Riku saw that he was at the end of a vast desert. This world seemed so random. There was no order, like in all the others he had been in. It seemed as though a depraved young child had drawn all this in with a pencil. Instead of the desert gradually coming to the cliffs, there was a fine line between the rocky shelves of granite that was ubiquitous of the ridges, and the parched, cracked vicinity of the desert.  
Riku pushed his silvery hair back from his eyes.  
Well, he thought, I'd better find a way out of here.  
Deciding that he did not want to brave the desert with very little water, Riku turned back to the cliffs. Slowly, he slipped one of his huge sneakers over the edge, looking for a foothold. He found one easily; it was finding the next one that presented a challenge. Riku gradually climbed down the sides of the cliffs. Riku had planned to reach the bottom of this cliff then start up the other side, whereupon he could get to the plains and figure out what he would do next.  
The rough, rocky surface of the cliffs scraped at the calluses on Riku's hands, and he began to get blisters. Riku did not care. He had to get out of here, and find Sora, and, if at all possible, Kairi as well. He did not even know if they were here at all. He knew he had seen Sora fly through the door behind him, but where he had fallen, Riku had no idea. That was a mystery Riku intended to solve as soon as possible.  
A soft, yellow light flew upward at him. At first, Riku made ready to shimmy back up to the top of the ridge, until the light buzzed in front of his face, and he realized who it was.  
"T-Tinker bell?" he asked, barely able to see as golden dust got into his eyes. She twinkled in response, and Riku breathed a sigh of relief. At least it hadn't been a monster. He had had his fill of those over the last year. But... if Tinker Bell was here, then others like her, from other worlds, must be here too, right? No, that couldn't be possible. Even Sora had been told that when Ansem was killed, and the Heartless destroyed, the worlds would come back together, and they would form invisible barriers between themselves. These barriers would be impassable, and thus, the people from those worlds would return to them, and never see their friends from the other worlds again. So... if that were true, then why was Tinker Bell here? Shouldn't she be in Neverland?  
He didn't contemplate this further, however, because at that moment, he realized that he was lighter than he'd been a moment ago. He was thinking of his friends. A happy thought. Was that how that Peter Pan person had been able to fly? Was he now flying unconsciously?  
Slowly, Riku let go of the rocky ledge. Sure enough, he did not fall. He lay, however, suspended in the air, and couldn't quite work out how to move down or up. He knew though, as unconsciously as he knew how to fly, that if he let go of the thought of his friends, he would plummet into the darkened depths.  
He held onto the thought. Well, at least he wouldn't have to climb anymore. But he wasn't sure what to do. He could fly to the mountain ranges, or he could go to the desert. Now that he could fly, it didn't matter whether he had water or not. Surely it would be faster if he flew over the desert.  
As he was deciding this, suspended in midair, Tinker Bell was having the time of her fairy life zipping about the rocks on the other side of the canyon.  
Deciding that he would take a risk, Riku tried to propel himself forward through the air. It was surprisingly easy. He found that he could fly upward, forward, or backward just by going in that direction with his lower torso. He could go down the same way. Going side to side was when it got tricky. He had to shift his weight, as though he were on the raft that he, Kairi and Sora had fashioned from a few palm trees to escape the island. But shifting too much caused him to sometimes overbalance, or go in circles, and for several seconds, he was all too sure he would fall, but he managed to keep it together.  
The darkness of the abyss was shocking to Riku, and it was further incentive to get the hang of the flying thing. He flew around for a while, in loop de loops and circles, faster and faster, until he felt he had it down. After feeling better at having got it, he gazed around, and thought of what to do next. At that moment, Tinker Bell flew up to him.  
She twirled in midair, gesturing to the plains on the other side of the canyon. Riku realized that she wanted him to follow her. She skirted off, and Riku flew after her.  
He made it over the canyon without any trouble, but, upon reaching the other side of the ridges, Tinker Bell flew low into the plains. Riku hadn't seen it from a distance, but there was terribly sharp bramble in the plains. They tore at Riku's sides, and his yellow shirt, but he did not care. Sora was what mattered now. If one thing he knew from Ansem were true, it would be the fact that the Keyblade Master was in grave danger. Riku suddenly resented the fact that the Keyblade hadn't chosen him, and he almost fell.  
I wasn't worthy of the Keyblade. My Heart only cared for the power it possessed, not the courage and passion of friendship it took to wield it. But that doesn't matter now. I don't want the Keyblade. I only want to save the one who wields it.  
Tinker Bell stopped. She gestured enthusiastically down to a spot between the brambles, where it got thick. She darted down there, fast as a bullet, but this time Riku hesitated for a second. Those bushes looked sharp. He would get severely injured if he were to fly down there.  
Again, Riku reminded himself that he only wanted to find Sora, and if Tinker Bell's way would take him to him, then he would go there, no matter what the cost. He darted down after her.  
Surprisingly, the branches merely opened up for him, and he did not get hurt at all. There was a hole in a dirty patch of dust below him. Riku had not gotten the hang of landing yet, so he was forced to roll to a stop before it, cutting his elbows as he did so. Riku stood, and faced the small gap.  
It did not look too big, in fact, if he were a few years younger, he would have fit inside quite easily. Riku did not care. He crossed to the opening, and slowly dropped into the hole.  
It was dark, and at first, Riku felt solid ground beneath him, but it soon gave way, and he was falling through. The darkness was the first thing that Riku felt, that familiar cold he got when he was near the Heartless. He had been tricked. That Tinker Bell was probably a duplicate, a copy. And he had fallen for it.  
Yet at the same time that he felt the darkness, he also felt the warmth of the light. So maybe this wasn't a trap. Riku was still weary of one, however.  
Riku blinked. He couldn't comprehend what he was seeing.  
A table was floating in midair! And as he looked, he could see more furniture floating around him. He wasn't in the Darkness, but he did think he knew where he was.  
Wonderland? Could that be it?  
Yes, now that he looked around him, he found that there was plaid on the walls, and everything looked cartoon-like, like a drawing.  
Yes! Now it made sense. He had fallen into a rabbit hole, as Alice had done. But... this Wonderland did not seem like the Wonderland that he had kidnapped Alice from. Somehow, it seemed... different. He couldn't quite figure out why though.  
He landed. He was in a strange room, and sure enough, it did resemble Wonderland. There were the doors, the biggest door in front, opening into the next smallest, then the next smallest, and so on.  
He could not find Tinker Bell. He scanned the room for her. The room before him showed no sign of her. The door was filled with Darkness, though, and Riku made ready for the worst.  
And just as he was about to turn away, a claw-like hand pawed its way through the door... 


	2. Chapter Two The Journey of Darren and Ri...

TWO  
  
DARREN  
  
The sun beamed down upon the scruffy neck of a boy of about fifteen. He had brownish hair that reflected the sun, and eyes that did the same. He was tall for his age, and in the town of Arden, there were many tall lads.  
His name was Darren, and he had only just come here from somewhere else, though where that somewhere was, Darren had no clue.  
The Seas at the edge of the port gleamed ahead of him as he drove the streamer (a mechanical motorcycle that hovered over the roads) toward it. His friend, a beauty of a girl who toiled away in the engineer's shop downtown, made the streamer. Sometimes it seemed as though all Angel cared for was mechanical things. She could build with the best of the strong lads, and could make things out of the crudest things. She was an inventor at heart, and would stay that way her whole life. Many housewives in the village thought it un-ladylike of her to work on machines like the boys of the town, but Angel was different. She hated cooking the fish brought in from the port, and she hated cleaning up after a mess, both of which were jobs expected that a woman would do.  
By going against such a stereotype, all of Angel's friends who were girls had abandoned her, and she was left with only the lads who volunteered in the shop. She did not care, however. Her friends were her machines, and she was their friend. She worked with engines, power cells for the hover vehicles, and anything she could use to create. She was an artist, and a fine one at that.  
Darren maneuvered the hovercraft so that it flew over a set of crates coming into port, and then continued down toward the water. He already had a sunburn, and it was only ten o'clock in the morning. The skin was beginning to peel, and he could feel a slight burning sensation. Darren did not think of it, though. The port was close, and he was now on the pier.  
He zoomed across it, his exhilaration level rising, feeling the wind in his long hair...  
And then he saw something that made him sick. A robot porter was crossing the pier toward the streamer. Darren couldn't stop at this speed, and he couldn't slow down...  
  
"So, you're saying that you ruined this streamer because a porter was on the pier? Geez, they otta' have a license for these things."  
Angel's tone carried no hint of anger; to her, this only seemed humorous. Stuff like this happened often to Darren, and she had learned to accept it as part of his personality.  
"So, did you total it this time?" she asked, grinning slightly.  
"Well, no, but..."  
"I get it. I'll get to work on it right away. I swear, Darren, I turn my back on you for one minute, and something gets broken. Guess I've gotta keep a closer eye on you."  
Angel turned, grinning even more broadly, and went into the shop, leaving Darren to reach behind him and grab the bag of the streamer's remains. He felt foolish enough in front of Angel, but now that he had broken three of her streamers in one month, he felt even more so.  
Regardless of how many times he wrecked one of her creations, she did not scold him, or anything. She treated him like a friend all the time. Darren made his way, slowly, into the shop.  
Her grease-stained shirt was fluttering as a light breeze from the ocean flowed in through the window. He felt even more foolish. His cheeks red, he heaved the bag over to her.  
He told himself that he had to help her fix it. It was the least he could do. She put on her goggles, and gazed at the contents of the bag.  
"Oh, well, it doesn't look that bad," she said, sifting through the rubble, "I'm positive I can fix it. It doesn't matter anyway. I make these blasted things all the time. Hey, at least now I know that it won't work so well with porter collisions, right?"  
She laughed sweetly. Darren laughed too.  
"Sorry, Angel."  
"Hey, don't worry about it. At least you were careful. I'm just glad you weren't hurt."  
Darren smiled again. He had been lucky. He had swerved to the left at the last second, and the streamer had knocked him off, into the water. It had hit barely missed the robotic porter's head. Had he damaged the android terribly, there would have been serious consequences for Darren. Arden was very protective over its robots.  
Now that he had apologized and he was sure that she wasn't mad at him, he decided to ask the question he had wanted to ask for over a week now. There was a town dance tonight, and he desperately needed a date. It was down by the beach, and there would be dinner included.  
"Angel?" he asked, his voice cracking as he spoke.  
"Yeah?"  
"There's this dance... tonight...and I was wondering..."  
"If I'd go with you?"  
Again, he felt foolish. His cheeks grew as red as his neck.  
"Um... yeah."  
"Of course I'd go with you."  
He felt relief spread over him.  
"Really?"  
"Sure. I don't have anyone to go with, either."  
"Awesome!"  
His voice cracked on that word, and he turned away, smiling widely. At that moment, another kid walked into the shop.  
He was tall, and had been in the Elite, a group of rich kids in Arden who thought they were better than everyone else. He was thin, muscular, with green eyes, and oily black hair that went down to his shoulders. His name was Drake, and his father, unsurprisingly to Darren, was mayor of Arden.  
He went over to Angel's desk, and placed a muffler on it. It was dented, and it had been split at the center.  
"I got this at your shop," he said, his voice carrying his tone of domineering superiority, "As you can see, it broke. I require a new one. Now."  
Angel looked at him sternly, and Darren knew she was fixing him with her disapproving stare, the one she reserved especially for those who belonged to the Elite.  
"Sure," she said, her tone just as disgusted as her mood, "Just let me get it."  
She disappeared into the back of the shop. Moments later, she came back with a large bundle in her hands.  
"Here it is," she said, handing it to him briskly.  
His manner changed in an instant. He went from the domineering Drake to an oily, charming Drake.  
"Angel, you know, there's a dance tonight. I'm sure that you'll love to have the honor of being my date at this social gathering. I'll pick you up at seven o'clock tonight."  
Angel put on an utterly disgusted face, as though she'd first eat excrement.  
He turned to go, but Angel called him back.  
"For your information, Drake, I've already been asked," she said, looking deeply into his eyes and staring him down. "And just so you know, I'd rather swallow daggers than go with you, anyway."  
He looked livid.  
"And who is the unworthy boy you're attending the dance with?"  
"Him."  
She gestured to Darren.  
"What, that street trash?"  
This time, Angel slapped him straight across the face with all the strength she could build up, which, for her, was quite a lot.  
"His name is Darren, you blundering idiot! And he's ten times the man you'll ever be! Now, you take your muffler and GET OUT OF MY SHOP!"  
Drake, shocked, sped out of the store without further conversation. Angel turned back to Darren.  
"What a jerk," she said, and went back to fixing the streamer. 


End file.
